This invention relates to an improvement in existing food cutting apparatus wherein food held in a hopper is cut by rotary cutter cones, each cutter cone having a conical wall portion with projecting cutting portions. Each cutting portion has a sharp forwardly facing cutting edge which cuts material in the hopper, and a forwardly facing opening which enables such cut material to enter the interior of the conical cutter from which it ultimately falls.
Heretofore hoppers in such apparatus have had a stationary lower edge. The walls of the interchangeable conical cutters were all geometrically identical, but the cutting portions projecting from such walls varied in height from one cutter to another. With such construction, the gap between the cutting portions and the lower edge of the hopper would vary from cutter-to-cutter. When this gap became excessive, some material could pass between the lower edge of the hopper and the cutter. This is avoided by the present invention in which the improvement comprises a hopper having a lower edge which is movable to vary its distance from the cutter cones. Means are provided for holding the lower edge of the hopper at positions which lie proximate to the path of the cutting portions of the cutter cones mounted on the apparatus.
While the invention may take many forms, a preferred form thereof is illustrated in the accompanying drawings and described in the following portions of the specification.